


Obligation

by kitlee625



Series: Consanguinity [2]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-12
Updated: 2013-10-12
Packaged: 2017-12-29 03:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1000572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitlee625/pseuds/kitlee625
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ned tells Lyanna some surprising news. Set before Consanguinity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Obligation

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They belong to George RR Martin.

Things between them have been chilly at best since Lyanna left college to move in with Rhaegar, so she is surprised when her brother Ned’s name pops up on the caller ID one rainy Thursday afternoon.

“Hello?”

“I’m getting married,” Ned says without preamble.

“You’re what?” Lyanna is sure that she can’t have heard him right.

“I’m getting married. In a couple of months.”

“To who?”

“Cersei Lannister.”

Lyanna almost drops the phone in surprise. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she says when she finds the power to speak again.

Ned’s voice is completely serious. “Isn’t she your friend?”

Lyanna looks at the fridge where she has taped up a number of pictures from happier days. There crammed in a corner is a picture of her, Cersei, and Cersei’s brother Jaime making faces at the camera. It had been taken the day the twins convinced her cut class to go tubing in West Virginia. They had packed up the their BMW with snacks and beer and spent the day drinking on the river. It had also been the day when Lyanna had kissed Jaime only to have him pull away and tell her that he just thought of her as a friend. On the ride home the car had been filled with an uncomfortable silence, and Cersei had barely spoken to Lyanna for weeks afterwards.

“I wouldn’t go that far. She was my college roommate.”

“That’s not what she says about you. She says you two used to be close.”

Lyanna changes the subject. She doesn’t like to think about how things were during college. “So how long have you two been dating?”

Ned pauses before admitting, “A couple of months.”

“And you’re getting married? What is it - love at first sight? What did Brandon say?” Surely their oldest brother talked some sense into him.

Ned sounds very stiff as he says, “I’m just trying to do the honorable thing.”

“She’s pregnant,” Lyanna guesses. She takes Ned’s silence as confirmation. “I know you feel an obligation here, but you don’t have to marry her. Did she put you up to this?”

Ned sounds defensive. “She didn’t put me up to this. I asked her after I found out.”

Lyanna can’t imagine Cersei going along with a shotgun wedding to her brother, who she had once described as having the personality of an ice cube. “She didn’t want to get an abortion?”

Ned’s voice is icy as he says, “That’s my child you’re talking about.”

Lyanna remembers the parade of boyfriends Cersei had had back when they were roommates. Somehow she always managed to juggle things so that none of them were the wiser. “Are you sure about that?” she asks.

The silence that follows is so long that Lyanna almost wonders if they’ve been disconnected. The only sound is her brother’s breathing. Finally he says, “The wedding is November 9th in DC. Don’t come if you can’t be supportive.” Before she can say anything else she hears a click and then the dial tone.

**Author's Note:**

> After I wrote Consanguinity I just couldn't leave the characters alone and decided to continue the series. This story takes place a few years earlier.


End file.
